As former President Donald Trump's tenure came to a close, a top-secret binder brimming with critical details on Russia's interference in the 2016 election mysteriously disappeared, according to reports.
What Happened: The loss of this crucial intelligence dossier, which was not previously disclosed, was significant enough to necessitate briefings for leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who focused on the vanished documents and the ongoing efforts to locate them, last year, CNN reported on Friday.
Contained within the missing binder was sensitive intelligence collected by the U.S. and its NATO partners, pinpointing Russian agents. This intelligence was pivotal in supporting the U.S. government's determination that Russian President Vladimir Putin was working to propel Trump to victory in the 2016 election. The security around this information was so stringent that only a few lawmakers and aides with top-secret clearances were permitted to review it at the CIA's headquarters, according to CNN.
Amid this news, Donald Trump's niece, Mary Trump, offered her thoughts on her uncle's possible motive behind the binder's disappearance in a Substack post.
According to her, a report by Rolling Stone in July 2022 suggested that Trump, during his final days in office, was keen on safeguarding certain documents related to Russia, fearing that they might be destroyed by the incoming administration or the so-called "Deep State."
Trump allegedly believed these documents were key to proving his innocence in the Russian election meddling investigation.
Mary Trump spoke with legal expert Joe Gallina, who weighed in on the implications of this situation for Trump. Gallina pointed out that Trump faces 31 counts under the Espionage Act for retaining national defense information at Mar-a-Lago. The missing documents, however, present a new and potentially more severe legal challenge, he told her.
According to Mary Trump, Gallina outlined three possibilities in regards to the missing documents: they were either destroyed, lost or, in the gravest scenario, sold or transferred to Russia. Each possibility carries substantial legal risks, including life imprisonment under the Espionage Act for delivering national defense information to a foreign agent.
"Let me put it this way, if the government ever had evidence Donald Trump purposely handed classified info to a hostile power, he would never see the light of day again,” Mary Trump said.
This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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